BCSO: Equipment, training is crucial // PHOTO GALLERY, VIDEO

By SCOTT CARROLL | The News Herald

Published: Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 10:54 PM.

“We still abide by the laws, and the rules and the regulations,” he said. “So that hasn’t changed in our method of handling situations. But the public will certainly see the uniform, tactical-style, or be it a first-response style for a mass-casualty or worst-case scenario. That is changing. For several years, we’ve been at war, and we are learning what products — the type of vests, type of helmets, type of gear — that are working for our troops overseas and now that domestic terrorism is coming to us, will help protect your law enforcement from those type of attacks. Maybe the visual appearance of the style of helmets, the style of dress might look military, but it’s still a law enforcement officer conducting his duty at the time.”

The post-9/11 changes in law enforcement aren’t all about new gear, Ford said. There’s a strong emphasis on coordination, as well. The Sheriff’s Office works with other local law enforcement agencies — its SWAT team regularly trains with the Panama City Beach Police Department first response team — emergency response groups, Bay District Schools, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“We talk about the funding part of it and the equipment, but really the important part of it is the coordination among agencies. … I think that’s an important thing that has come out of the preparations that have occurred after 9/11 is increased coordination, an increased emphasis on being able to talk to one another in an incident,” Ford said.

PANAMA CITY — In the SWAT van, there’s no rookie cop sweating nervously only to be reassured by a flinty veteran. There are no grand speeches. And there’s no joking.

When about 20 heavily armed tactical officers are preparing to breach a door, or rescue a hostage, or detain a violent suspect, there’s only silence in that van, according to Bay County Sheriff’s Office Lt. David Baldwin.

“You can feel the tension,” he said. “When … everybody has their own command and objective as a task, … they have to stick to that task. Otherwise, the plans sometimes can fail. And they know what to do if the situation deviates … They are very focused and ready for the task that we’ve given them.”

Whatever awaits tactical officers outside that van, advancements in equipment and training over the last decade have increased their ability to respond to it, BCSO officials said. Federal grants have afforded the purchases, as law enforcement agencies across the country followed a renewed emphasis on domestic security sparked by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

From Sept. 11, 2001, to Sept. 11, 2011, the Sheriff’s Office received about $2.6 million in grants and related funds from the Department of Homeland Security, according to BCSO documents. The funds were used for night-vision goggles, a 27-foot Challenger boat, a freightliner to transport the BCSO SWAT team, retrofitting an armored truck, forming a regional bomb squad and regular training, among other upgrades.

Mass shootings in recent years — at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — also have changed the landscape of law enforcement, BCSO Maj. Tommy Ford said, and require enhanced response techniques.

But opponents of heavily equipped law enforcement agencies with officers trained in paramilitary tactics span the political, academic and civil realms, and have been notably critical about methods used to control Occupy Wall Street protesters in 2011 and the citywide lockdown that followed the Boston Marathon bombing this year.

In 2007, journalist Radley Balko, author of “The Rise of The Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” told a Congressional subcommittee a criminologist had tracked a 1,500 percent increase in the use of SWAT teams since 1987. Balko estimated that about 150 SWAT raids are executed each day in the U.S., some of which end in death for officers, suspects or innocent bystanders. In March, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed more than 260 public records requests in 25 states, including Florida, to “determine the extent to which federal funding and support has fueled the militarization of state and local police departments,” according to its website.

“Equipping state and local law enforcement with military weapons and vehicles, military tactical training, and actual military assistance to conduct traditional law enforcement erodes civil liberties and encourages increasingly aggressive policing, particularly in poor neighborhoods and communities of color,” Kara Dansky, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Center for Justice, said in a news release. “We’ve seen examples of this in several localities, but we don’t know the dimensions of the problem.”

‘Best of the best’

But militarization isn’t the appropriate term for how BCSO has changed, Ford said. Though half of BCSO’s current SWAT team has served in the military, they were chosen because they were the “best of the best,” he said, noting that other deputies with no military experience also are on the team. The Sheriff’s Office’s armored vehicle, an armored bank truck outfitted with extra plating, isn’t used very often but “comes in handy” when needed, Ford said. And Humvees BCSO acquired for about $1,500 each have been exclusively used in extreme weather events, like widespread flooding caused by historic rainfall this summer and in preparation for Tropical Storm Karen.

The upgrades BCSO received through Homeland Security, Ford said, are appropriate for a county of nealy 169,00 residents, and have one important thing in common — they’re used to protect deputies.

“You look at the equipment that we do use and that we have upgraded to, … they’re for our protection,” he said. “We’re not using grenade launchers. We don’t have a big howitzer that we pull up to a search warrant. … I would go back to preparedness and some of the bad scenarios that’s been proven could happen, and increasing our ability to prepare for those. Based on what you’ve seen here, I don’t think that you could say that we are a militarized operation. I think certain agencies in large cities, urban cities, they probably have a lot more resources and they deal with a much greater threat.”

Tanks and grenade launchers

Indeed, resources acquired by municipalities in other states have fueled the militarization controversy. Perhaps most recently, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office acquired a 19-ton military tank in September. In Cobb County, Ga., police have an amphibious tank. And thousands of other police departments and sheriff’s offices across the country have acquired grenade launchers, according to reports, while some have acquired drones.

The need for such equipment has been questioned, as has the legality of law enforcement agencies to possess it and have officers with paramilitary training. Opponents have said it violates the spirit of The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, a bill intended to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce the state laws.

At BCSO, Baldwin said, tactical officers are mindful they are “bound by the Constitution.”

“We still abide by the laws, and the rules and the regulations,” he said. “So that hasn’t changed in our method of handling situations. But the public will certainly see the uniform, tactical-style, or be it a first-response style for a mass-casualty or worst-case scenario. That is changing. For several years, we’ve been at war, and we are learning what products — the type of vests, type of helmets, type of gear — that are working for our troops overseas and now that domestic terrorism is coming to us, will help protect your law enforcement from those type of attacks. Maybe the visual appearance of the style of helmets, the style of dress might look military, but it’s still a law enforcement officer conducting his duty at the time.”

The post-9/11 changes in law enforcement aren’t all about new gear, Ford said. There’s a strong emphasis on coordination, as well. The Sheriff’s Office works with other local law enforcement agencies — its SWAT team regularly trains with the Panama City Beach Police Department first response team — emergency response groups, Bay District Schools, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“We talk about the funding part of it and the equipment, but really the important part of it is the coordination among agencies. … I think that’s an important thing that has come out of the preparations that have occurred after 9/11 is increased coordination, an increased emphasis on being able to talk to one another in an incident,” Ford said.